How to Reinvent Your Personal Brand

What are you known for? What do people say about you when you leave the room? (They are talking about you, aren’t they?) How can you burnish your reputation to win that promotion or land that new client? You’ve diligently focused on your personal brand for years — but what if you now want to reinvent yourself?

It happens all the time. A financial services executive moves into retail. A techie wants to try marketing. A VC wants to jump ship and become a life coach. Your path may make perfect sense to you, but how can you convince others to embrace your new brand — and take you seriously? Here are five steps to reinventing yourself for the business marketplace.

What’s Your Destination? First, you need to develop a detailed understanding of where you want to go, and the knowledge and skills necessary to get there. If you’ve been a techie for the past decade, you may understand every new marketing toy out there, from Facebook to Foursquare. But can you effectively convey that knowledge to a non-technical audience? Learning the skills you need will help you gain the confidence necessary to start identifying (and publicizing) yourself in your new identity.

Leverage Your Points of Difference. In marketing, we call it a USP — a “Unique Selling Proposition.” What makes you different from anyone else? That’s what people will remember, and you can use it to your advantage. Conservative pundit Ann Coulter, as the New York Times recently reported, has reinvented herself after losing popularity to newer, even more right-wing talking heads. Leveraging her unique blend of blonde vixen and conservative firebrand, Coulter is now courting gay Republicans who enjoy diva-style smack talk. You probably won’t find Sarah Palin hitting that circuit anytime soon, so it looks like Coulter owns it.

Develop a Narrative. You used to write award-winning business columns — and now you want to review restaurants? It’s human nature to have many interests, to seek new experiences, and to want to develop new skills over the course of your life. Unfortunately, there’s a popular word to describe that profound quest: dilettante. It’s unfair, but to protect your brand you need to develop a coherent narrative arc that explains to people — in a nice, simple way so they can’t miss it — exactly how your past fits into the present. “I used to write about the business side of many industries, including food and wine,” you could say. “I realized my big-picture knowledge about agricultural trends and business finance made me uniquely positioned to cover restaurants with a different perspective.” It’s like a job interview — you’re turning what could be perceived as a weakness (he doesn’t know anything about food, because he’s been a business reporter for 20 years) into a compelling strength that people can remember (he’s got a different take on the food industry because he has knowledge most other people don’t).

Reintroduce Yourself. The vast majority of people, regrettably, aren’t paying much attention to you. That means their perceptions are probably a few years out of date — and it’s not their fault. With hundreds (or thousands) of Facebook friends and vague social connections, we can’t expect everyone to remember all the details of our lives. So we have to strategically re-educate our friends and acquaintances — because, especially if we’re launching a new business venture, they’re going to be our buyers and recommenders. That means a concerted effort to phone or email everyone on your list — individually — to let them know about your new direction and, where appropriate, ask for their help, advice, or business. (Blast emails are a start, but too often go unread.)

Prove Your Worth. There’s a difference between my knowing that you’ve launched a new graphic design business and trusting that you’ll do a good job for clients. I may like you a lot, but unless I see proof of your skills, I may hesitate to put my own reputation on the line by sending you referrals. That’s where blogs, podcasts, videocasts, and other forms of social media come in. It’s critical to let potential customers see what you’re about and test drive your approach before they make a large commitment. Checking out your image gallery and seeing a roster of attractive corporate logos you’ve designed may allay my fears enough to send you that major new account.

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